Bailable warrant against 7 Essar officials by Udaipur court

Udaipur : A special court in Udaipur, hearing cases related to the prevention of atrocities against SC/ST communities, has summoned for appearance seven officials of the Essar Oil Ltd in connection to a harassment and forgery case pending for two years.The complaint is lodged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The case was first lodged in July 2016, however, the Pratapnagar Police Station had submitted an FR in the case but the complainant Rajesh Chouhan filed a protest petition which was lately heard followed by a court order summoning the officials for a hearing on May 15 next.

The case was filed by Rajesh Chouhan alleging that the company was trying to wrongfully acquire his land. He had also claimed that it was an offence under the POA Act.

Chouhan was the proprietor of a petrol pump at Khajuri village in Ratanpur, near Rajasthan-Gujarat border on NH-8. In his petition, Chouhan said that he owned land measuring 2,166 sq m and had invested a hefty amount in setting up infrastructure.

“Essar Oil had run a petrol pump on the land but had to shut it down due to irregular supply. I had purchased the land from its owner. The company offered me their franchise to run the outlet and we executed a dual contract in 2009. One was a land lease agreement for 20 years and the second for the franchise. But the company kept me in the dark by not disclosing the fact that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had denied NOC for operating the pump way back in 2004, deeming it illegal,” Chouhan said in his complaint.

Later, after NHAI issued a notice to close down the pump, the owner had to dismantle the structure and suffer heavy losses. The company also refused to pay his dues against rent, license fees and investments, amounting to around Rs 2.5 crore, and terminated the franchise agreement. The warrant have been issued against Mahesh Shukla, Mahesh Rana, Prashant Ruiya, Naresh Nair, Ajeetchandra Mishra, Sanjay Luthra and Rahul Priyadarshi.